The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-03-24
DIR. TALMAGE IN THE WEST
"NO MAN CARED FOR MY SOUL"
GREER FOR THE DiSHEARTENED.

W. MAN CAnED run WY OOOL.'
CHEER FOR THE DiSHEARTENED.
no Blame Attaches to Those Who Are
Able To Render Assistance IT They Are
Not Asked-If You Miss Heaven 1t
VIII BE Your Own Fault.
KANSAS CITY. Mo-, March 2O.-The Rev.
T. Dewitt TalmaSe, D. D., preached in the
Second Presbyterian church of this place this
morning. lie arrived here yesterday from
st. Louis, and is stopping over Sunday On his
way to Topeka, Kan. After expounding an
appropriate chapter he gave out the hymn
beginning:
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly.
His subject was "Cheer for the Dsheart-
eued," and his text, Psalms cxlii, V. 4: No
man cared for my soul" DR. Talmage said:
David, the rubicund lad, had become the
battle worn warrior. Three Thousand armed
m4n in pursuit of him, he had hidden in the
cave OF Engedi, near the coast of the Dead
Sea. Utterly tagged out with the pursuit, as
you have often been worn out with the trials
CI life, he sat down and cried out: "No man
cared for my soul"
If you should fall through hatchway, or
slip from a scafolding, or drop through
skylight, there would be hundreds of people
who would come around and pick up your
body and carry it TO your home or TO the
hospital / saw great crowd of people in
tie street, and asked: "What is the matterI'
and found out that q poor laboring man had
fallen under sunsGrole; and all our eyes were
filed with tears at the thought of his dis
tr&oted wife and his desolated home
We ara all SytDf,o thatjc with r,l,yeioa1 iii
sastcr, but how little sympathy for spiritual
WocSi There are men in this house who have
come TO midlife who have never yet been once
personally accosted about their eternal well
fare A great sermon dropped into an audi
cnce Of hundreds of thousands will do its
work; but if this world is ever to be brought
to God it viii be through little sermons
preached to private Christians, to an audi
once of one The sisters letter postmarked
ut the yillage--the word uttered in your
hearing, half of smiles and half of tears-the
religious postscript to a business letter-the
card left at the door when you had some kind
of troube-the anxious look of some one
across u church aisle while all earnest sermon
was being preached, swung you into the
kingdom Of God But there are hundreds of
people i'll this house who will take the word
that David used in the past tense, and employ
cares for my soul"
You feel as you go out day by day in the
tug and jostle of life that it is every man for
himself. You can endure the pressure of
commercial affairs, and would consider it
almost impertinent for any one to ask you
whether you are making or losing money.
But there have been times VIXEN you would
have drawn your check for thousands of dol
lars if some would only help your soul out Of
its perpieXities There are questions about
your higher destiny that ACHE and distract,
and agonize you at times. Let no one sup
pose that because you are busy all day with
hardware, or drygoods, or groceries, or grain,
that your thoughts are no longer than your
yard stick, and stop at the brass headed nails
of the store counter. When you speak once
about religious things you think 5000 times.
They call you worldling You are not a
worldling. OF course you are industrious
and keep busy, but you have had your eyes
opened to the realities of the next world.
You are not a fool You know better
than any one can tell You know that O
few years at most will wind up youl
earthly engagements, and that you will take
residence in a distant sphere where all yom
business adroitnoss would be a superfuity
You sometimes think till yonr head ache.
about great religious subjects. You go dowr
the street with your eyes fixed on the pave
ment, oblivious of the passing mutitudes
your thoughts gone eternal expedition
You wonder if tho Bible is true, how much o.
it is literal and how much is fgurative law
if Christ be God, if there is anything like
retribution, if you are immortal, if a resur
rection will ever take place, what the occupa
ton of your departed kindred is, what yor
Will be 10000 years from now With cul
tured placdity of countenance you are OF
fire with agitations of soul. Oh this solitary
anxiety of your whole lifetime You hav,
sold goods to or bought them from Christian
people for ten years, and they have neve
whispered one word of spiritual counsel. Yoi
have passed up and down the asles o
churches with men who knew that you hat
no hope of heaven, and talked about the wea
ther and about your physical health, an,
about everything but that concerning whicl
you most wanted to hear them speak, VIZ
your everlasting spirit. Times without mum
ber you have felt in your heart, if you hav
not uttered il with your lips, mo man care
for my soul"
There have been times when you were es
pecially pliable on the great subject of re
hsiOn. 1t was so, for instance, after you ha
lost your property. You had a great man
letters blowing you up for being unfortunate
You showed that there had been concatena
ton of circumstances and that your inso
vency was no fault of yours. Your creditor
talked to you as though they would have 10
cents on the dollar or your life Protes
after protest tumbled in on your desk. Me
who used to take your hand with both c
theirs and shake it violently, now pass you o
the street with an almost imperceptible nod
After six or eight hours of scalding bushes
oh,
and throw yourself on the sofa and you fee
in n state of despair. You wish that som
one would come III and break up the gloon
Everything seems to be against youth
bank against you. Your creditors agains
YOU. Your friends suddenly become crit
cal against you. All the past against yol
All the future against you. You make II
proachful outcry: "No man cares for IN
soulln
There was another occasion when all I'll
doors of your heart swung open for sacre
influences. A bright light went out in yor
household. Within three or four days thel
were compressed sickness, death obsequie
You were so lonely that 100 people comm
into the house did not break up the solitar
ness You were almost killed with IL
domestic calamity. A few formal perfun
tory words of consolation were uttered ON Il
stairs before YOU went to the grave; but yc
wanted some one to come and talk over Il
whole matter. and recite the alleviations al
decipher the lessons of the dark bereavement
No one came Many a time you could n
sleep until 2 OF 5 o'clock in the moTnin
and then your sleep was troubled dream,
which were re-enacted all the scene of sic
ness, and parting, and dissolution. Oh, VIII
days and nights they werel No man seem'
to care for your soul.
There was another occasion when yo'
heart was very susceptible There was
great awakening. There were hundreds
people who pressed into the kingdom of Go
some of them aequaintances some busine
associates, yes, perhaps some members of yo
own family were baptized by sprinlling
immersion. Christian people thought of yo
ELY'S RAwAD 1N